A great spiritual awakening, postmodern style

Trying to get above or ahead of the public fray about religion in order to make any cultural sense of things is a bit like trying to unscrew a flat head with a Phillips head. As institutions go, this one is a mangled glob of disconnected hierarchies each claiming the high ground from which one can see forever. This is also an apt description for the further tangled wires of individual religions, for each sect within these wholes strives for placement above the rest. It’s the most interesting of all of the worlds that make up Western civilization (and beyond, of course), because it involves hard core beliefs and behaviors that form an expanding circle of influence governing the lives of individual people, families, communities, regions, states, countries and even the world itself.

We all have a religion, even those who claim no religion, for even the tenets of atheism require faith. As David Dark writes in his new book, Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious, “If what we believe is what we see is what we do is who we are, there’s no getting away from religion.”

The question I’m going to be exploring in the months and years ahead is where is religion headed and what will it look like in a postmodern world? Since my roots and background are Christianity, the Christian faith will likely be my primary focus. The cultural and intellectual crossover experiences I’ve had, however, tend to provide observations from outside the box of Christianity itself. Consequently, what I’ll be writing will come from a more inclusive window on the world. I realize that even in saying that, I’m opening myself up to criticism from those firmly inside that box, so you’ll likely find me drifting in and out. I’ll be criticized as undisciplined, but I’m ready for all of that.

This may baffle some, but welcome to the mystery of chaos. I hope to shed light on the chaos of postmodernism, too.

In my forthcoming book, How Jesus Joined The GOP, I make the case that the people who scare me the most today are those who refuse to venture outside that box, and I’m not talking about leaders. It’s the foot soldiers of the political right in their “Christian battle” that frighten me most, because they have no incentive to listen, and listening is THE most important skill in today’s networked world. They’re generally too busy talking. Such people are on a collision course with deconstructionists, many of whom came from their midst, and this will not end well. It is however quite inevitable, for the very structure of that connectivity will continue to place ongoing and relentless pressure on those who are incapable of or refuse to deconstruct themselves. The process of clicking on a link for further elucidation is, in fact, an exercise in deconstructionism. Families will be torn apart over this, and the young will speak a language entirely foreign to their elders, and it won’t be rock-n-roll.

There’s no going back, and even the appearance of standing still is illusionary.

Christians who look to tradition only will find themselves caught in this crucible and will have to make decisions that will impact everyone in their tribes of influence. Choosing to stand one’s ground will seem noble at first, led by those who’ll quote persecution scriptures and antiChrist warnings. Convinced that God will protect them FROM all of this, they will be shocked to later learn that God was actually leading this all along. They will also be surprised to discover that the spiritual awakening for which they’ve been praying for so long has actually taken place without them.

One thing is certain: postmodernism isn’t a passing fad or work of the devil. It’s the passing away of the flaws and fallacies of modernity and the opening of the cultural era that will govern Western civilization for a very long time. Just as the printing press struck at the heart of the church’s authority in the fifteenth century, so the internet is disrupting the authority of the hierarchies of modernism. Colonialism is a relic that belongs on the dust pile of history along with the form of Christian evangelicalism that accompanied it, and the funeral service has been underway already for many years.

I’m sure this sounds dark and spooky to many readers, but it’s actually a time of great rejoicing. God isn’t dead; God is Life, so that’s ridiculous. And for millions of people, there IS an awakening underway of Biblical proportions. It doesn’t resemble anything of the past, thank God.

I’ll be writing about that awakening, and I may be clumsy in so doing. Please be patient and don’t be afraid to join in the discussion.

Comments

Hi Terry, I find some of your observations a bit hard to swallow at this time. Spiritualism is evolving and changing the way some religions believe. But the ones that don’t change are fine as they are and not all republican. That’s an absurd jump, maybe colored by your current location / region.

Modernity didn’t demand changes to Rome, but it did bring forth the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church carried on. Postmodernism doesn’t “replace” modernism; it’s additive. Mainline churches are generally not the cultural problem that evangelicals represent, and I can see I’m going to have to be more careful in how I represent that. Thank you.

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Transparent Terry

I blog for two reasons. One, it is the greatest method ever created to challenge my own assumptions, something that I believe is necessary for anyone who wishes a seat at the discussion table... Read More…